TY - JOUR
T1 - The search for wellbeing in alternative and complementary health practices
AU - Sointu, Eeva
PY - 2006/4
Y1 - 2006/4
N2 - This article is premised on a need to understand and analyse how those turning to alternative and complementary medicines conceptualise the role of these practices; to ask what kind of 'health' is produced through alternative and complementary medicines and how might the help provided by these practices relate to questions of identity, self and subjectivity? Even though alternative and complementary medicines can be utilised in the face of serious illness, the healing produced through these practices is here argued to transcend physiological health and relate rather to a subjectively assessed sense of 'wellbeing'. In this article, I analyse what this wellbeing entails, in particular, in terms of contemporary understandings of selfhood as well as in relation to the production of appropriate emotions through 'emotion management'. I argue that the wellbeing produced through alternative and complementary health practices can be conceptualised as a means of asserting a particular kind of self as well as a means of negotiating identities offered to people in wider societal discourses and institutions. This article is based on qualitative interviews with both practitioners and users of varied alternative and complementary medicines. The focus is on women's experiences.
AB - This article is premised on a need to understand and analyse how those turning to alternative and complementary medicines conceptualise the role of these practices; to ask what kind of 'health' is produced through alternative and complementary medicines and how might the help provided by these practices relate to questions of identity, self and subjectivity? Even though alternative and complementary medicines can be utilised in the face of serious illness, the healing produced through these practices is here argued to transcend physiological health and relate rather to a subjectively assessed sense of 'wellbeing'. In this article, I analyse what this wellbeing entails, in particular, in terms of contemporary understandings of selfhood as well as in relation to the production of appropriate emotions through 'emotion management'. I argue that the wellbeing produced through alternative and complementary health practices can be conceptualised as a means of asserting a particular kind of self as well as a means of negotiating identities offered to people in wider societal discourses and institutions. This article is based on qualitative interviews with both practitioners and users of varied alternative and complementary medicines. The focus is on women's experiences.
KW - Alternative and complementary medicines
KW - Emotion work
KW - The self
KW - Wellbeing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33645284450&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2006.00495.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2006.00495.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 16573719
AN - SCOPUS:33645284450
SN - 0141-9889
VL - 28
SP - 330
EP - 349
JO - Sociology of Health and Illness
JF - Sociology of Health and Illness
IS - 3
ER -